


One of those days

by Beowolf



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Family, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:14:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28960785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beowolf/pseuds/Beowolf
Summary: Aichi hasn't been feeling like himself lately. Knowing full well his big brother and sister will graduate soon and leave for college he tries to be happy but can't help but feel down. Perhaps something will change that.
Relationships: Kai and Aichi and Kamui and Misaki
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Aichi woke with a violent jolt as he snapped upwards, his breaths being torn from his lips rather than going in and out normally. Nothing but the darkness and the harsh gleam of red light from the digital clock sitting on his nightstand greeted him. At first he didn’t know where he was, or what was happening. And with nothing but the darkness threatening to eat him and the red light taunting him his hand flew over to his lamp and yanked on the metal cord. 

Immediately the corner of his room was illuminated, casting its soft yellow lights on the walls and revealing the sleeping form of his brother buried and tangled in his sheets. The elder boy stared at him for a long moment before a sigh of relief escaped his lips and he slumped back onto his bed. The light starting to grate on his already dark adjusted eyes Aichi figured that all was well and that he should head back to sleep. If he could recover any sleep that is. 

But just as he was about to reach over for the cord again, a pair of gleaming brown eyes caught his own. Aichi jumped with a little start, before Kamui let out a giggle. Despite the sleep clouding his mind he seemed pretty alert. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you.” Aichi said, feeling his cheeks heating up with embarrassment. As well as cringing at the time it read on the clock, five in the morning to be exact. 

“Aw that’s okay…” Kamui yawned some of his sentence being garbled as a result. “Can’t sleep?” 

Aichi paused for a second. Flashes of his dream came back, but mostly as blurry shadows and a sinister pair of eyes glaring at him and their hand clamped tightly around his arm. The strange thing was that their eyes were completely visible to him. Wide and harsh cracks of red staring down at him. Everything else around them was dark. He looked back up at his younger brother, whom studied him with a worried expression. 

“You okay? Bad dream?” he asked now fully sitting up and pulling his legs off the bed. 

Aichi glanced back at his brother and tried to put on a reassuring smile on his face. “Yeah something like that. It’s alright now though.” He said which was partially true, even if he still shivered at the images of it in his brain. 

Kamui frowned before getting up and climbing into bed with his brother. Aichi let out a laugh and hugged him close before reaching over and turning off the light. “There now if any bad dreams come back I’ll chase em off.” The younger one said with determination. The elder one chuckled and gently stroked Kamui’s jet black hair. Which could not be tamed no matter how many times they tried to brush the young boy’s hair. 

“Hey it’s my job to protect you, I’m the one who’s supposed to reassure you.” Aichi said, felling lulled by his younger brother’s warmth. 

“Sure but it doesn’t mean I can’t rush to your rescue either.” 

Both boys giggled again and soon were lulled back into a peaceful sleep, even if they had school in a couple of hours. 

\--- 

“If you two aren’t up and dressed in about ten minutes no coffee today!” Their brother’s voice boomed at them. Letting out a groan Aichi sighed and kicked off the sheets. 

“Kamui… come on, we got school.” He muttered. 

“Can’t we say screw it and go back to sleep?” the other replied slowly stirring in his spot. 

“Nope now come on, up and at em!” Aichi replied, quickly crawling out of bed and ripping the covers off his brother. 

“Eugggghhhh…” Kamui groaned and curled up back into a ball. A little less than annoyed Aichi rolled his eyes and without mercy soon dug his fingers into Kamui’s sides. Loud laughter erupted from the younger boy who squirmed and twisted in his spot. 

“He-ehehe!! Get off!!” he howled trying to shove off the larger boy. 

“Now are you awake!?” Aichi grinned trying to hold back his own laughter. 

“Yes, yes now get off!!” Kamui begged, this time shoving off Aichi with success or some at least. Both boys still laughing they soon made tracks for getting dressed for school. 

Finally clad in decent clothes and by that I mean an apparel of clothes they have had for years, sporting some tiny holes in the cloth they strolled into the kitchen and plopped down at the table where Misaki sat. 

“You two were loud is there a new ritual I’m missing out on?” she asked taking a big gulp of her black coffee. Aichi almost cringed at the sight, how could someone down all that bitter stuff without spitting it back out? Sure, he loved coffee but as long as it was drowned in creamer and sugar. 

“Something like that.” He yawned. Once his eyes landed onto the steaming pot in front of him he quickly reached over and poured himself a big cup of the blackened liquid and then dumped a whole bunch of the vanilla creamer in. 

“Ooo oo!! Me too!” Kamui said quickly darting his arms over to the big pot as well. 

“Hey watch out your gonna spill it!” Aichi exclaimed. 

“Kamui if you break another pot again that will be the end of coffee for you.” Kai sternly noted as he stood at the stove pushing around the scrambled eggs on the pan. 

“I said I was sorry!” Kamui defended this time setting the pot more gently back down on the table and dumping too much of the vanilla creamer into his cup as well. 

“Okay you two are killing the whole point of the drink, it’s supposed to be bitter.” Misaki matter-of-factly stated but not without that familiar gleam in her eyes. 

“Hey, you have your preferences and we have ours.” Aichi replied before taking a big gulp of the sweetened drink. Soon the eggs and bacon were placed on each of their plates and everyone (save for Aichi) dug in. His stomach was less than hungry but he still ate regardless, knowing he would need the energy for today (and because Kai cooked it for them). He and Morikawa had a presentation to give in class and knowing how poorly his friend bode with getting up in front of the class the young boy was prepared for intervening the awkward silences. 

They continued to eat and banter until Kai took note of the time and almost choked on his orange juice. “It’s already seven-fifty!?” he said. 

“What? Crap, okay guys we’ll have to cut breakfast short, get your shoes on!” Misaki said quickly getting up and taking some of the plates and silverware and dropping them off into the sink. Everyone scrambled to get their stuff together before racing downstairs and passing through the card shop past their guardian. 

“I take it you didn’t clear the table?” he called out to them. 

“Sorry Shin!!” Kamui yelled back as they all quickly piled into the car. 

Starting up the car Kai pulled out onto the driveway and drove down to first destination, the middle school. The morning was a bit darker than usual, the skies dark shades hinting a storm might be coming. But despite that everything was relatively peaceful until Kamui soon realized that something vital he needed was sitting on his desk back at the apartment. Turning white as a sheet, Aichi raised a brow at him. “What’s up?” he whispered to him. 

“I forgot my assignments for today…!” Kamui whispered back, trying to make sure that neither their brother or sister overheard them. The youngest was pretty infamous for having a bad habit of not putting his homework away after he finished them the night before. Which meant his grades suffered because of that. 

“Crap…” Aichi muttered to himself, “Well… you’ll have to tell her the truth. Do you want me to go with you?” He asked.

“Why are you two whispering?” Misaki asked, suspicious of the sudden silence in the backseat. 

As soon as Kamui’s pleading and nervous eyes met with Kai’s in the mirror above him the brunette understood what was going on.

“What’d you forget?” he asked, though it sounded like he had a pretty good idea of what the item might be. 

“He just forgot his some of his homework I can explain to the teacher-“ 

“What was it?” Kai sighed. 

“My make-up work…” the youngest weakly responded. Already the sudden stress seemed more visible in Kai and Misaki’s expressions. 

“Why don’t we drop them off first and then I’ll go back and get it okay?” the young woman suggested. 

“You’ll be marked tardy again though- “ 

“Yeah but if Kamui doesn’t get that make-up work in he’s going to drop down to a C.” his sister pleaded. 

“Alright, I’ll tell the teacher what happened.” Kai replied, a little tensely. Though he was quite level-headed his temper could run a bit short sometimes. Especially when it came to forgetting about important things.

“Sorry…” Kamui muttered feebly in the back. 

“Hey, this sort of thing happens to me a bunch of times, relax.” Aichi tried to reassure him. 

“Aichi make sure he gets all his work in the night before, kay?” Kai said. 

“Yeah. I will.” 

The school soon within sight Kai pulled into the parking lot and unlocked the doors. “Alright I’ll be here with your assignment soon okay?” their sister said, “Don’t worry.” 

“Okay.” Kamui replied hesitantly before getting out of the car along with his brother. 

“It’ll be fine, come on.” Aichi firmly grabbed his arm and pulled him with him, giving a wave to their brother and sister who did the same. 

Maybe the day started off less than ideally, it being a stormy morning and the whole thing of forgetting his homework. But once Misaki came with the make-up packet in her hands Kamui felt flooded with relief. Aichi felt a bit more evened out now that the whole thing was cleared and then was able to focus more on the presentation for their social studies class. 

The presentation for class managed to go smoothly despite Morikawa awkwardly shifting in his spot near their board as Aichi tried his best to explain each part of their assignment in the most relaxed manner he could manage. After the whole thing during lunch Aichi including his misfit friends let out a sigh of relief. 

“Dude I thought you weren’t going to make it for a minute there.” Izaki laughed. 

“Hey, it wasn’t my fault my cards were mixed up!” The other defended a bright blush of pink coloring his cheeks. 

“I thought you organized them before the presentation, poor Aichi had to swoop in and save you again.” Shingo snickered like a hyaena. Grinning the young boy patted his friend’s back in a reassuring matter. 

“You managed to recover faster this time though, that beats your old time.” Aichi said with a grin. His friend let out a sigh and rolled his eyes, his cheeks now pinker, but not meant to insult the shorter one. 

The rest of the day was uneventful as it passed by at an all too slow of a rate. Mondays were never the best but at least they got the most unpleasant task out of the way. Now the rest of the week was cleared up. They were in the clear for now. During study hall, Aichi found it difficult to stay focused on his work. Between hearing Morikawa and Shingo bicker, or feeling an unpleasant dulled pain his temples, he really didn’t have the energy to focus on anything. Even if he wouldn’t admit it, that figure from his dream kept rearing its ugly head into his mind. Taking out his small square sized sketchbook he began to doodle flowers and other little plants. 

Shingo noticing the change of behavior gently nudged him as to say, ‘Everything cool?’ 

Aichi stared back at him and smiled before nodding. He’d be fine. It was just one of those days right?


	2. A tournament?

The sun still hadn’t broken out at all during the whole day, and eventually resulted in raining. It wasn’t too bad at first, but once the bell rang the rain had went from sprinkling to a full-on down pour, intending on turning everything in its way into a muddy soup. Aichi found himself holding his sweatshirt over Kamui and himself as they quickly darted from the school after waving off their friends to Kai and Misaki’s car. Rushing into the dry and warm car from the chilly outside both shut their doors and let out a sigh of relief. 

“Hey there’s your extra shower since gym.” Misaki lightly teased. 

“Look who’s talking.” Was Kamui’s brilliant come back, but he wasn’t wrong, both Kai and Misaki were a bit soaked themselves. 

“Yeah I’m gonna have to change when we get home.” Their sister idly commented.

“You turn in your packet?” Kai inquired. 

“Yes! Misaki got it to me just before class started!” Kamui replied cheerfully. 

“Good.” The other replied. His mood seemed lighter now, which was a relief, the whole thing from this morning more or less forgotten now. 

The car ride was quiet save for the occasional chatter here and there and they were home shortly. When they got back to the apartment each one went to their own devices, Kai and Misaki quickly got started on homework. And Aichi and Kamui went to their room. They didn’t feel like playing any games today. The hours went by until at about six p.m. when Shin called out to them saying dinner was ready. Once again Aichi’s stomach churned. When he left their room the smell that wafted by his nose made him internally cringe. He was definitely not up for steak and mac and cheese tonight. 

Still he got up anyway and went to the table in the kitchen. Taking his usual seat by Kamui the dinner table was both full of idle chatter, mostly over little stuff. Kamui went on about something or other while Misaki listened, a small smile on her face. Exhaustion (save for the youngest one) shadowed the corners of everyone’s eyes. They all looked tired. Aichi wondered just how much they were hammering his older brother and sister with homework. Maybe the teachers felt like giving them a hard time. Aichi only pushed at the food on his plate. Any little bits made his stomach sour. 

Shin took notice of this and set the fork down on his plate. 

“You okay Aichi?” he asked, and the other glanced up.

“Yeah, just tired,” Aichi quickly answered, “Is it… okay if I eat later?” He asked. 

“Sure, not feeling well?” Shin asked. Misaki leaned over and placed a hand on his forehead. 

“Hmm… you’re not warm,” She said, “Go take an alka. That’ll settle your stomach.” 

“I thought it was called alukasalazar.” Kai lightly teased, earning an eye roll from the younger boy. The one-time auto-correct didn’t swoop in, and now he was forever teased for said misspelling. 

“Oh that’s cute Kai, real cute.” 

“You’re cute.”   
“I—what?” Aichi replied, blinking blearily.

A soft chuckle emitted from everyone as Aichi downed the medicine and soon went off to his room. The bed felt nice, and he refrained from playing on his phone. Staring at the screen probably wouldn’t do his eyes any good. For a little while he stared at the ceiling, just thinking. The anxious feeling came back and the boy let out a sigh. He hated when this happened. There wasn’t any real reason or rhyme for it, but sometimes he’d feel like this. It could happen at any point, whether he had been having a good day, bad day or somewhere in between. 

It had grown worse during this May. Graduation wasn’t too far away for Kai and Misaki, and soon they’d be going off somewhere for college. The university Kai got into was out of state. And Misaki’s was at least a four-hour drive from their home. Aichi frowned and turned on his side, listening to the sounds of the rain. He had to stop moping so much about it. Otherwise he’d start getting all sad and lonely when Kai and Misaki were literally in just the other room. Suddenly someone knocked on the door. 

“Come in.” Aichi said. Misaki entered, giving him a little smile. 

“Hey, how you feeling?” 

“Hmm, tired.” 

“Heh, I think that’s everyone’s mood right now.” She replied, going over to take a seat beside him.

“Sour stomach gone away?” 

“Yeah,” Aichi said, glancing up at the window, watching the little droplets of rain run down the window, “I wish it would stop raining.” Normally he liked the rain, but this time it was just keeping him in a low mood. 

“Yeah, it really is pouring. It’ll have to lift at some point though,” She looked back at him, “Listen, how bout’ we start a new game of RE later tonight?” 

“RE2?” 

“I was thinking the more superior one, RE3.” 

“Misaki, we’ve been over this, RE2 is the best one.” 

“You mean the child’s play with Mr. X?” 

“Least he doesn’t turn into a rhino at the end of the game.” 

Misaki laughed and grabbed the other’s hands, pulling up him. 

“Come on, let’s go have fun for a bit.” Rolling out of bed Aichi followed his sister back to the living room. Kai sat at the table, methodically taking notes for an upcoming test, while Kamui relaxed on the couch. 

“Oh look who it is.” Kamui said while Aichi went to go set up the PS2. 

“Where’s Shin?” 

“He’s downstairs.” Kai said. 

“We’re gonna start a new game of RE2, you up for it?” Misaki asked. 

“Heck yeah!” Kamui said, and soon Aichi turned on the game. It was exactly what they all needed, fun mindless horror and shooting up zombies to get their minds off of school and their busy schedules. The game wasn’t very hard but even then Kamui and Aichi got stuck when they couldn’t remember what they were supposed do next after completing varying tasks. 

“Wait, where do I go again?” 

“I think you’ve already passed by this area.” 

“Lemme see.” Kai said, taking a seat next to Kamui. The other handed him the controller while the elder one navigated the floor they were on. 

“I think you’re supposed to go back down to the conference room… but I could be wrong.” Kai muttered, half to Kamui and to himself. As much as he loved the series it had been a long while since he played it. 

“Here I’ll pull up the guide.” Misaki said, reaching for her phone in her pocket. Just before that however, Shin came back upstairs, the closing door echoing in the hall. When he came into the room, a bright smile was on his face. He was holding a few flyers in his hands and seemed excited. 

“Whoa, did you just see the light of Jesus or something what’s going on?” Kamui said, which earned a little elbow in the side from Aichi. 

“Language…” 

“Sorry.” 

“Nah it’s something way more exciting than that,” Shin said, walking into the living room, “So… how would you guys feel about competing in a Vanguard tournament?” 

“Like a tournament here?” Kai asked. 

“No… a national’s tournament.” Shin said, grinning ear to ear. Everyone went quiet, all of them exchanging looks with each other. 

“You mean like… going to that big stadium?” Kamui asked, the only one who looked a little excited about it. 

“Yeah! All amateur teams are invited to come and compete. All we’d just have to do is register and come up with a team name for you guys. 

“When would it take place?” Misaki asked. 

“Not till after you graduate, so you wouldn’t have the stressor of school.” 

“Hmm.” Kai muttered. 

“Guys come on! It’s a nationals tournament, I thought you’d all be more excited than that.” Shin said, a little exasperated. 

“Well, I’m excited! I think it could be a lot of fun!” Kamui chimed in. Misaki shrugged. 

“Maybe its worth a try. Doubt we’ll get in though. We have to get through the tournaments here right?” 

“Yes, but they won’t be till later, again, not until you two are done with school.” Shin reiterated. 

“Well… I’m up for it.” Kai said. 

“Really?” Shin said. 

“Yeah, let’s go for it. Might as well have some fun before Misaki and I are put to the grindstone in school again.” 

“I hear you.” Misaki laughed. 

“Awesome, so everyone’s down for it?” Shin asked, “Aichi?” 

“Sure, sounds great. We gotta have a good team name though right?” 

“Ah yes, we’ll need a good team name. Anybody got ideas?” 

“How bout’ the Asurakaisers?” Kamui suggested, in which he was met with less than impressed looks, “What? Shin asked.” 

“Yes but I’m not sure if I want to be referenced as that all the time.” Misaki muttered, earning a small grin from Aichi. 

“What about… the prismos?” 

“No!” Kai suddenly said, causing Aichi to break out into laughter, “Not Prismo. We are not going by that name!” Aichi dissolved into giggles as Kamui began to snicker. 

“Oh for the love of god…” Misaki muttered, more so to herself. Shin looked at both sides, one in a fit of giggles and the other quite annoyed. 

“What’s this about? Some inside joke between you guys?” 

“More like, keeps spouting the same joke forever without end and making me contemplate throwing myself out of the window.” Kai sighed. 

“It seems an opportunity has come our way detective!” Kamui said in the goofiest tone he could manage. 

“For what better place to play but in the house of mirrors!” Aichi chimed in, albeit not as smoothly no thanks to the giggles bubbling up in his throat. 

Misaki and Kai groaned in annoyance as a response to that, which prompted Kai to take a pillow and toss it right in Aichi’s face. It didn’t do much to deter them.

**Author's Note:**

> Kay I'm just gonna say right now I love family stuff. Like the characters are one big family and reside under the same roof. Just clearing that up now because that's pretty much 90% of my fanfics.


End file.
